华盛顿邮报 数百名美国退役军人为外国政府工作(3)（在线收听）

So, the best-known example of someone going to work for the United Arab Emirates was actually Marine General Jim Mattis, who's our former secretary of defense.

去阿拉伯联合酋长国工作的最著名的人物是海军陆战队上将詹姆斯·马蒂斯，他是我们的前国防部长。

Mm-hmm.

嗯嗯。

I, James Norman Mattis, do solemnly swear...

我，詹姆斯·诺曼·马蒂斯，庄严宣誓…

I, James Norman Mattis, do solemnly swear...

我，詹姆斯·诺曼·马蒂斯，庄严宣誓…

...that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States...

...我会拥护和捍卫美国宪法……

...that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States...

...我会拥护和捍卫美国宪法……

And we found out that he applied twice for foreign-government employment with the United Arab Emirates.

我们发现他曾两次申请阿拉伯联合酋长国的外国政府职位。

And, you know, that he had served as the head of all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, so he was very well-acquainted with the Emirati leadership.

而且，他曾是美国在中东所有军事行动的负责人，所以他非常熟悉阿联酋的领导层。

We asked General Mattis, you know, "How much did they pay you for this?"

我们问马蒂斯上将，“他们为此给了你多少钱?”

He said he did this on an unpaid basis.

他表示他这样做是无偿的。

But it's a little strange that you would have such a high-ranking retired general work as a military adviser for a foreign government.

但让这样一位高级退休上将为外国政府担任军事顾问有点奇怪。

And what's different in Mattis' case is that after he was working as an adviser for the United Arab Emirates, he comes back into U.S. government service as the secretary of defense.

马蒂斯的不同之处在于，他在担任完阿拉伯联合酋长国的顾问后，回到美国政府担任国防部长。

He becomes President Trump's first secretary of defense.

他成为特朗普总统的首任国防部长。

And this was something that never really was made public at the time, that Mattis had served as a military adviser.

马蒂斯曾担任军事顾问，这在当时是从未真正公开过的。

Again, he says unpaid, but, still, this was a role he held for a foreign government.

同样，他说没有报酬，但这仍然是他为外国政府担任的职务。

And then he comes back and he's in charge of our armed forces.

然后他回来指挥我们的军队。

So this was a twist and turn that we hadn't really expected, but sort of opened our eyes to the extent this is going on overseas.

这是一个我们没有预料到的转折，但在某种程度上打开了我们的眼界，看到了海外正在发生的事情。

Well, can you tell me a little bit, like, what are the implications exactly of having, you know, high-ranking military officials working for foreign governments and then, in Mattis case, coming back to work for the U.S. government?

嗯，你能告诉我，让像马蒂斯那样的高级军事官员为外国政府工作，然后再回到美国政府工作，到底意味着什么?

You know, what is the -- What are the broad concerns of having people participate in this revolving door?

让人们参与这个旋转门有什么广泛的担忧吗?

So, the United Arab Emirates, even though it's a very small country, with only about a million of its own citizens, over the last 10 or 15 years, it's built up a pretty strong military force.

阿拉伯联合酋长国，尽管是一个非常小的国家，只有大约一百万的公民，在过去的10到15年里，该国建立了一个相当强大的军事力量。

It's probably the best-equipped and most capable army in the Middle East of all the Arab countries, save for Israel, of course.

这可能是中东地区所有阿拉伯国家中装备最好、战斗力最强的军队，当然，以色列除外。

So this is a country that's built up its military with an awful lot of American help, both at the strategic-advice level, but also at the grunt level.

这个国家在美国的大量援助下建立起了自己的军队，不仅包括战略建议层面的援助，而且包括步兵层面的援助。

You know, we have hundreds of people there working as contractors.

我们有几百人在那里做承包商。

And the way that's possibly problematic is the Emiratis have gone from just trying to defend their own territory to they've become more aggressive.

可能的问题是阿联酋已经从仅仅试图保卫自己的领土变得更加具有侵略性。